The PlayStation Network outage continues and, with Sony stock down and …

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It's now Monday, the week after Sony told us to expect some functionality to return to the PlayStation Network. Sadly, that has not happened: you can't play your games online, make digital purchases, or download demos; the service remains completely dead. Sony is claiming that it's still unpacking the extent of the attacks, and the industry has begun to try to put a dollar amount on the damages being suffered by the Japanese company.

They'll share more information once they have it

Sony continues to give updates on the official PlayStation Blog, and Friday's was a doozy. "We were unaware of the extent of the attack on Sony Online Entertainment servers, and we are taking this opportunity to conduct further testing of the incredibly complex system," Patrick Seybold, the senior director of corporate communications and social media, wrote. "We know many of you are wanting to play games online, chat with your friends and enjoy all of the services PlayStation Network and Qriocity services have to offer, and trust me when I say we're doing everything we can to make it happen." He also stated that we'll get more updates as soon as they have more information, and he apologized once again for the delay and inconvenience of this network outage.

Mizuho Investors Securities analyst Nobuo Kurahashi estimated that Sony could be on the hook for $1.25 billion in lost business. "It could take months for the security woes to settle, and how this may affect consumer confidence in Sony's online services in a long run is harder to assess," he told the Wall Street Journal. The data breach has taken the company's shares down six percent, and Sony executives are still trying to assess the impact of the outage on the company in the long term.

Sony is still expecting to have the service fully restored by May 31, according to Bloomberg. You can only imagine what companies like Bethesda think of this issue; sales of the high-profile online title Brink will suffer on the PlayStation 3. No one wants to spend $60 on a multiplayer game they won't be able to play online.

What Sony is offering gamers

Sony has already shared the plan to make things up to gamers in the United States, including a free month of PlayStation Plus and a year of identity theft protection. The company has also given some hints on what to expect for European gamers.

"As I have explained previously, creating a similar offering for the many countries within the SCEE region is a very complicated process," Nick Caplin, the head of communications for SCEE, wrote on the SCEE blog. "Each country has a different way of handling identity theft; some offer relatively sophisticated services whilst others are much more modest." More details on how Sony will navigate the complexity of this issue should be available early this week.

Caplin also explained another program in which PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable users will be offered free games. "We will be offering PSN users the opportunity to select two PS3 games from a list of five, as well as offering PSP users the opportunity to choose two games from a list of four," he wrote. "We will let you know exactly what games are available very soon." Let's hope this program makes it to North America as well.

With no end in sight for the short term, the outage will continue to hurt Sony's reputation in gaming, not to mention the sales of third-party developers and publishers relying on the PlayStation Network for their games. Once the dust settles, this will prove to be an expensive lesson in network security.

It is somewhat appropriate: Microsoft, the software company, loses a billion dollars because it doesn't know how to do hardware (the RRoD warranty charge). Sony, the hardware company, loses a billion dollars because they don't know how to do software (the PSN hacks and outage).

It's gotten to the point where loyal PSN buyers are going to start to leave forever. This is gone from fiasco to financial crisis.

Maybe and maybe not. Gamers have a remarkably short memory when it comes to game outage (outside the online forums, of course, where they like to complain all day long like everyone else). Console users, as a sub-group, probably have the memory of a newborn newt. I might be wrong, but I wouldn't be surprised if the large majority of them won't be back 6 month after the service is restored, lured back in by one hit game or another.

Although I myself am not affected by this outage (I have a PS3 but I'm a single-player kind of, erm, player) I can understand that lots and lots of people are being negatively impacted.

Though I understand how high-profile publishers may be losing revenue, think of the smaller, "indie" game developers who are suddenly left with a large chunk (maybe 50%) of their target audience effectively gone, as there is no other way for them to sell their PS3 games. No matter how soon Sony manage to bring PSN back up, indie developers and publishers on the PSN have already suffered a much more serious blow than large companies.

I just hope this doesn't discourage indie game development on the PS3 altogether, but I can envision developers switching over to XBLA or WiiWare because of all this.

At least they have restored the network enough so that it responds and tells me I can no longer watch netflix, seriously, fuck sony.

[Edit]Just to short circuit the back and forth, Netflix is working for for many people using the standard fail the sign in twice and it will let you in. However, for some people, like myself, this method has stopped working over the past few days, instead it takes you to the show list as usual, then when you try and play anything it asks you to log in once more, and then keeps asking you forever.

Wow, this is pretty impressive. If their systems are down for more than a month, I don't see how they will ever be able to attract exclusives again. It's one thing to not be able to play for a month, it's another to not have people be able to buy your game for a month. I expect a lot of lawsuits from developers against Sony by the time this is over.

It really makes you wonder if this whole debacle is the beginning of the end for Sony's game console division.

For the life of me, I can't wrap my head around the fact that a multi-billion dollar corporation could drop the ball so thoroughly when it comes to security on their *global* gaming network. Sony's lost a ton of money on the PS3 prior to this; I don't know how you come back from a financial debacle of this magnitude.

To brutally frank, when PSN comes back on line, I'm getting my Steam copy of Portal 2 and then just probably avoiding PSN for a while. I've enjoyed my PS3 over the last 3 years, but I'd trust a rabid honey badger more than I trust Sony at this point.

but I wouldn't be surprised if the large majority of them won't be back 6 month after the service is restored, lured back in by one hit game or another.

Nor I, there's only so much cutting off the nose to spite the face people will actually do.

Bottom line: Yeah it sucks, yeah its a pain but not I don't believe that many people would jump brands right now, a console isn't that big an outlay, but I wouldn't call it trivial either. I imagine most will wait it out, piss and moan (rightly) but get back on when its back up.

At least they have restored the network enough so that it responds and tells me I can no longer watch netflix, seriously, fuck sony.

You can still watch Netflix through the PS3, it's just more of a pain in the butt now. All you do is keep trying. The first time, it'll give you the screen where it tells you that you need to be logged on to PSN to access Netflix, but if you keep trying, eventually it'll just forward you to Netflix and you'll be able to navigate it normally.

I wonder if Valve or Sony plan to do anything for us guys that have been waiting to register our "free" PC version of Portal 2. Until you link your Steam and PSN accounts, the download code doesn't work.

I'd be happy if Valve let me play a 30 day demo on Steam so that when the PSN is back, I can register that code and continue playing, but Valve and Sony seem to share the lack of customer communication...

I wonder if Valve or Sony plan to do anything for us guys that have been waiting to register our "free" PC version of Portal 2. Until you link your Steam and PSN accounts, the download code doesn't work.

I'd be happy if Valve let me play a 30 day demo on Steam so that when the PSN is back, I can register that code and continue playing, but Valve and Sony seem to share the lack of customer communication...

At least they have restored the network enough so that it responds and tells me I can no longer watch netflix, seriously, fuck sony.

You can still watch Netflix through the PS3, it's just more of a pain in the butt now. All you do is keep trying. The first time, it'll give you the screen where it tells you that you need to be logged on to PSN to access Netflix, but if you keep trying, eventually it'll just forward you to Netflix and you'll be able to navigate it normally.

I bet Netflix is not very happy with Sony right now.

Ever since Thursday night I have not been able to use this method, netflix gives me an error saying that the PSN is down and won't let me load anything and I keep getting sent back to the PSN login screen.

At least they have restored the network enough so that it responds and tells me I can no longer watch netflix, seriously, fuck sony.

You can still watch Netflix through the PS3, it's just more of a pain in the butt now. All you do is keep trying. The first time, it'll give you the screen where it tells you that you need to be logged on to PSN to access Netflix, but if you keep trying, eventually it'll just forward you to Netflix and you'll be able to navigate it normally.

No, the original commenter is correct. What you describe was true at first, but at some point last week, that stopped working. Even if you can get into the Netflix application and scroll through the available titles, it will refuse to let you watch any, insisting that you be logged into PSN first.

I don't know whether Sony permuted the state of their network, or Netflix decided to take proactive action to prevent non-authenticated users from viewing video content from PS3s, but there is absolutely no way to watch Netflix on PS3 at the moment.

At least they have restored the network enough so that it responds and tells me I can no longer watch netflix, seriously, fuck sony.

You can still watch Netflix through the PS3, it's just more of a pain in the butt now. All you do is keep trying. The first time, it'll give you the screen where it tells you that you need to be logged on to PSN to access Netflix, but if you keep trying, eventually it'll just forward you to Netflix and you'll be able to navigate it normally.

I bet Netflix is not very happy with Sony right now.

Ever since Thursday night I have not been able to use this method, netflix gives me an error saying that the PSN is down and won't let me load anything and I keep getting sent back to the PSN login screen.

Same here. I can get to my queue, and attempt to play something, but when it starts buffering, it tries to log into PSN again, and eventually the Netflix app gives a communication error.

If their goal is to make it secure before they bring it back up then I'm not surprised that the timeline is stretching. Security requires careful planning from the data center up to the public website and is not something that can just be thrown together in a weekend.

However, I would hope they could figure out how to let people in to at least play games even if the ecommerce and other aspects of the service take a while longer to get put together.

As an addendum, I encourage every PS3 Netflix user to write a complaint to Netflix to get them rolling on something, I think that Sony would pay much more attention to another large corporation than to a retarded (in Sony's eyes) user.

how long exactly did it take playstation 3 to start making money? they sold at a loss for a while......... now they lost 1.25 billion..... Did this by change knock them back into the red? If so I will find it highly amusing.

I wonder if Valve or Sony plan to do anything for us guys that have been waiting to register our "free" PC version of Portal 2. Until you link your Steam and PSN accounts, the download code doesn't work.

I'd be happy if Valve let me play a 30 day demo on Steam so that when the PSN is back, I can register that code and continue playing, but Valve and Sony seem to share the lack of customer communication...

Yeah, I'm in the same boat.

Unfortunately, I don't think that the PS3 version of Portal 2 is the "version to get" any longer. In other news though, my 360 version works just fine...

In all seriousness though, I really hope that MS is paying attention to this and their engineers are getting fat OT checks (or free pizza/comp time if they're on salary) for all the time spent double checking their network. In a perfect world, they wouldn't have made the same mistakes that Sony did and have a more secure network (then again, in a perfect world, Sony wouldn't have made these mistakes), but I at least hope that this was a wake-up call to check things and patch up security holes if they were behind the ball.

This whole incident just goes to show that these massive global gaming networks with millions of subscribers and their juicy CC information have big targets on their backs. The consoles are playing with the Big Boys now, like Amazon and their ilk, and they need to use Big Boy security if they want to keep their customers.

No, the original commenter is correct. What you describe was true at first, but at some point last week, that stopped working. Even if you can get into the Netflix application and scroll through the available titles, it will refuse to let you watch any, insisting that you be logged into PSN first.

This is inconsistent. I am still able to eventually get to Netflix, though I am not thrilled at the possibility of that stopping (mainly because I will then have to move the 360 to the TV my wife is currently watching on bed rest)

As a DCUO player with a life time subscription. This so called free one month of game play is a joke. If you add up the money spent on this game i am into it for more than 500 dollars. So i say get your butts in gear and get this network up and running. or give everyone a refund, and that includes the money spent on the PS3 as well.

A soon as PSN is back up, I'm registering my PC/Mac Portal 2, selling my PS3 and all 3 games I have for it, and buying a cheap blu-ray player. Because that's what my PS3 has been 99% of the ~4 years I've had it: blu-rays and Netflix.

No, the original commenter is correct. What you describe was true at first, but at some point last week, that stopped working. Even if you can get into the Netflix application and scroll through the available titles, it will refuse to let you watch any, insisting that you be logged into PSN first.

Was I imagining that I was using Netflix yesterday? Or over the last week? I wonder where I was watching all those episodes of Top Gear, Doctor Who, and Battlestar Galactica.

Too bad for Sony. I never imagined a breach this magnitude could happen to such a corporation.Anyway, it could be a golden opportunity for a new player to step in (Apple, a new Nintendo console?). Sony better leave the PS3 soon enough and launch a new model. The reputation of the PS3 is no longer there. I know PSN is not PS3, but in the mind of many customer the difference is not that clear and a "new" model could help looking forward.

And lastly I wonder if it will ever be known who was behind this attacks. Maybe we will never know.

Too bad Sony suffered such a blow. I used to be a big fan of Sony (SonyEricsson, Vaio, Handycam), now I switched to other brands. PS3 is still a good product. But I honestly wouldn't trust them with my personal information.

In all seriousness though, I really hope that MS is paying attention to this and their engineers are getting fat OT checks (or free pizza/comp time if they're on salary) for all the time spent double checking their network. In a perfect world, they wouldn't have made the same mistakes that Sony did and have a more secure network (then again, in a perfect world, Sony wouldn't have made these mistakes), but I at least hope that this was a wake-up call to check things and patch up security holes if they were behind the ball.

I remember back in December 2007 when Xbox Live went down.. And it was near Christmas weekend too. However, it was only down for a day or two because it worked for me a few days later. Although I think it was related to the "Internal Maintenance" that was performed during May, which made Live, unavailable for the whole day.